Understanding Explosions

by Daniel A. Crowl
Copyright 2003 American Institute of Chemical Engineers

Appendix

EQUATIONS FOR DETERMINING THE ENERGY

OF EXPLOSION

Four methods are used to estimate the energy of explosion for a pressurized gas:
Brode's equation, isentropic expansion, isothermal expansion, and thermodynamic availability.
Brode's method (Brode, 1959) is perhaps the simplest approach. It determines
the energy required to raise the pressure of the gas at constant volume from ambient pressure to the burst pressure of the vessel. The resulting expression is
E=

(P2-Pi)V

(B-l)

1
where is the energy of explosion (energy)
, is the ambient pressure (force/area)
P2 is the burst pressure of the vessel (force/area)
V is the volume of expanding gas in the vessel (volume)
is the heat capacity ratio for the gas (unitless)
Since P2 > P{, the energy calculated by Equation (B-l) is positive, indicating
that the energy is released to the surroundings during the vessel rupture.
The isentropic expansion method assumes the gas expands isentropically
from its initial to final state. The following equation represents this case (Smith
and Ness, 1987),
p2V
-1

(-1)/

i-l '
Pi

(B-2)

The isothermal case assumes that the gas expands isothermally. This is represented by the following equation (Smith and Ness, 1987),

where Rg is the ideal gas constant and , is the ambient temperature (deg).
The final method uses thermodynamic availability to estimate the energy of
explosion. Thermodynamic availability represents the maximum mechanical
energy extractable from a material as it moves into equilibrium with the environment. The resulting overpressure from an explosion is a form of mechanical
169

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Appendix Equations for Determining the Energy of Explosion

energy. Thus, thermodynamic availability predicts a maximum upper bound to the

mechanical energy available to produce an overpressure.
An analysis by Crowl (1992) using batch thermodynamic availability resulted
in the following expression to predict the maximum explosion energy of a gas contained within a vessel.
(B-4)

1 - ^

-P2V In
' /

Note that Equation (B-4) is nearly the same as Equation (B-3) for an isothermal expansion with the addition of a correction term. This correction term
accounts for the energy lost as a result of the second law of thermodynamics.
The question arises as to which method to use. Figure B.l presents the energy
of explosion using all four methods as a function of initial gas pressure in the
vessel. The calculation assumes an inert gas initially at 298 with = 1.4. The gas
expands into ambient air at 1 atm pressure. The isentropic method produces a low
value for the energy of explosion. The isentropic expansion will result in a gas at a
very low temperaturethe expansion of an ideal gas from 200 psia to 14.7 psia
results in a final temperature of 254R, or -205F. This is thermodynamically
inconsistent since the final temperature is ambient. The isothermal method predicts a very large value for the energy of explosion because it assumes that all of
the energy of compression is available to perform work. In reality, some of the
4000

Isothermal

"o

8000

3000

Brcxlc

5
SC0
U
u
<w
e

.2
.
e

"*

2000

6000

Availability
Isentropic____

1000

/ .''

ju

.:

4000

et

/ f

2000

100

200

300

400

500

Gas Pressure (psia)

Figure B.l. The energy of explosion for a compressed inert gas computed using the four
available methods.

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B.l. Example Application

energy must be expelled as waste heat according to the second law of thermodynamics. The availability method accounts for this loss by the correction term in
Equation (B-4). All four methods continue to be used to estimate the energy of
explosion for compressed gases.
It is thought that the Brode equation more closely predicts the potential explosion energy close to the explosion source, or near field, and that the isentropic
expansion method predicts better the effects at a greater distance, or far field. However, it is unclear where this transition occurs. Also, a portion of the potential
explosion energy of vessel burst is converted into kinetic energy of the vessel
pieces, and other inefficiencies (such as strain energy in the form of heat in the
vessel fragments). For estimation purposes, it is not uncommon to subtract 50% of
the total potential energy to calculate the blast pressure effects from vessel burst.
Some empirically based methods to estimate fragment formation and fragment range are based on the use of a specific energy equation above (typically the
Brode equation). Since these methods are empirical, their use mandates the energy
equation specified.
More detailed methods are available to calculate the energy of explosion for a
rupturing vessel (Baker, Cox et al., 1988; AIChE, 1989, 1999a).

B.1. Example Application

EXAMPLE B.1

Determine the energy of explosion by the four methods for a 1 m 3 vessel containing nitrogen at 500 bar abs pressure. The ambient pressure is 1.01 bar abs and the
temperature is 298 K. Assume the vessel contains nitrogen with a constant heat
capacity ratio of = 1.4.
Solution

For this case, Pt = 1.01 bar and P2 = 500 bar.

a. For Brode's method, Equation (B-l) is used
(P2 -PX)V _ (500 bar - 1.01 bar)(l m 3 )
= 1250barm
-1
1.4-1

=1.25x10*,8 J

b. For the isentropic method, Equation (B-2) is used

(1.4-1 )/1.4

(500bar)(l m 3 )
(1.01 bar
11.4-1
1500 bar

= 1040barm 3 =1.04 1088 I

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Appendix Equations for Determining the Energy of Explosion

c. For the isothermal method, Equation (B-3) is used

f 500 bar
= (500bar)(l m 'jlnl
E = P7V In
yPij
\ 1 . 0 1 bar

= 3100barm =3.10xl0 J
d. For the availability method, Equation (B-4) is used
E = P2V M ^ l - i i - i
= (500bar)(l m ')

500 bar
1.01 bar

1.01 bar
500 bar

: 2600 bar m

= 2.60 x l O 8 J
The following table summarizes the results
Method
Brode:
Isentropic:
Isothermal:
Availability:

Energy (10 8 J)
1.25
1.04
3.10
2.60

As expected, the isentropic method produces the lowest value, while the isothermal method produces the largest value.